Now where was I? As I was saying; before I was rudely interrupted by life, joy, pain, the rise of #Twitter, Summer love, unemployment, heartbreak, ANC’s victory, the death of music’s greatest entertainer, the bloody agent send-off, the coldest winter, the story of the lethal Mini Coopers, quitting addictions, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, more heartbreak, the fall of Facebook, alcohol highs and lows, T.I going back to jail, Agliotti walking free, etc. People (all three of them lol) would come up to me and ask ‘What happened to the blogs?’. While standing there trying to come up with a valid reason as to why I’d stopped posting my weekly notes, there’d always be one truth that crossed my mind: ‘I got too lazy to blog’. That long-ass sentence at the beginning of this paragraph should let you know for sure that I wasn’t short of material to write about. I just, well, got lazy.
Well it’s back to business, enough about my abundance. I was reading my previous posts from last year and one thing I realized was that my content heavily relied on our country’s current affairs (with some general social issues here and there). So I’ll continue in that vein by tackling the story of a tragedy that happened in our country’s shores, and yet has the UK, as well as a number of surrounding countries, up in arms. I’m pretty sure that most of you have heard/read about the killing of 28 year old Anni Dewani who was here (in Cape Town, specifically) with her newlywed husband for their honeymoon. This apparently happened while the couple was being chauffeured by a resident driver through a number of tourist spots in Khayelitsha. From what I understand, the three were victims of a hi-jacking that eventually left Anni fatally shot in the neck, and Shrien (her husband) only traumatized, with no scar or physical harm to his body. Being that the Dewanis were tourists from the UK, you can imagine how much of a field-day the British tabloids were/are having. British tabloids are always quick to slander African countries (remember the World Cup crime scares? You would’ve thought S.A. was Afghanistan). Back home, authorities and representatives are working at a dizzying pace trying to save our country’s reputation. We’ve fought so hard to remove the ‘You-will-be-robbed-or-shot-as-soon-as-you-enter-South-Africa’ label that sensationalists have given our country over the years. Plus I don’t remember reading about a tourist dying during the World Cup; but the truth is, we can only cover up so much. I mean think about it, how many regular people die every day unnoticed (or ignored) by the media? Do we have that many South African lower-class people dying that it’s not news anymore? Or is it because Anni was British, and married to a millionaire? (Oh yeah I forgot to mention that husband Shrien is balllliiiinnn’). My issue is not necessarily with the media coverage of the story. What intrigues me is the hoopla surrounding the actual events that took place on the fateful night of November 13th.
When I first saw the story on the news, a friend of mine who I was with at the time immediately called foul play on widower Shrien. He wasn’t the only one to assume that the prominent businessman killed his wifey (maybe he found out she couldn’t cook? IM JOKING). Depending on who you are, this story might have sounded fishy to you from the onset too. Even though the thought did cross my mind, I personally don’t believe he did it. I don’t know, call it sincere intuition, but I doubt this guy did it (he looks a bit nerdy lol). Think about it. He’s a millionaire businessman from the UK. How the fuck did he get connected with random Khayelitsha thugs to set up a hit on his wife? I know some of y’all might say ‘maybe he’s powerful like that’, but come on. This is real life. We’re not watching a Martin Scorsese film here. Maybe it was purely Grand Theft Auto IV type shit. Besides, the police reports (including statements from the driver’s attorney) state that Anni Dewani insisted that they drive through some Gugulethu hot spots (shebeens, taverns, etc). The allegations became so bad that Shrien himself made a statement to the press (for the first time) claiming his innocence. At the end of the day, it’s all about what/who you choose to believe. I just read today that Shrien’s friends are also defending him. They claim that the South African authorities are the ones fuelling beliefs that their friend instigated the entire murder, in order to shift the blame away from our country’s homicide-free-World-Cup reputation (i.e., Police Commissioner Bheki ‘If I Aint Good-Looking You Bet My Bitch Is’ Cele paying local newspapers to point Shrien as the one). Wow.
What do you guys think? Did he do it? Or is our country THAT violent? Just the other day I was telling my friend how I’ve grown up hearing/reading stories of how crime-infested our country is and what-not; and yet I’m still not convinced it’s that bad. Some of you might argue that maybe I grew in relatively ‘safe’ areas, but that’s debatable (Montshiwa wadup!). Or maybe growing up here teaches you how to avoid/ignore the ills and occurrences of crime in this country. But then again, Southern Africa is STILL number one in the list of sub-continents with the highest homicide rate (Google it, baby). So I don’t know. For the first time (in all of my blogs) I’m closing on a confused note.
Happy Friday you Yentas!
P.S.: Did I mention that the driver of the couple’s rented car was also arrested? Ugh, this is too much.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Pay Before Play (Iraq Is About To Attack)
[Originally posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 1:23pm]
We’re all lucky to be in this country right about now; well at least we should be. The soccer fever is finally catching up to more and more people. It took a while to kick in (pun intended), but the whole buzz around the FIFA World Cup is turning into a reality day-by-day. You’ll notice it from everything that surrounds us; adverts, the mascot, TV promotions, news media coverage, and who could forget the damn road constructions! And now with the Confederations Cup starting in two days, expectations continue to grow higher now as (literally) the whole world has its eye on South Africa. Call it nerve-wrecking scrutiny if you may, but only good will come out of the football extravaganza. Now that everything’s in place, I didn’t know whether to be shocked, worried or both when I recently found out that our soccer team (out of all people) aren’t as prepared as we thought they were for the first game of the Confed Cup this Sunday.
If you don’t know by now which team we’re playing this Sunday, then you deserve a slap to your face; nonetheless, I reckon SAFA deserved a kick to the nuts when members of our squad revealed this past Monday that they didn’t know shit about the Iraq team. I was like ‘What the fuck?’. Here I am listening to striker Bernard Parker say shit like “Uhm…we don’t know jack about the Iraqi soccer team...we’ll probably see a tape of them in action sometime this week…”. Are you serious? Sometime this week? Even though the game is on Sunday? They should’ve did their research on the Iraqi team last year for crying out loud. Usually when teams are about to engage in critical matches the team staff makes sure that thorough research on the opposing team is made before-hand. I imagine it being like those war movies where the Commander would draw out strategies on a still projector; or how Jamie Foxx would study tapes of Ray Charles before he actually played the character for that movie ‘Ray’. Before I blow my horn any further, I’d like to admit that I’m not sure who we should blame for that. Is it coach Joel (Dipset) Santana’s fault? A lot of people would agree to that one. I’ve known that professional coaches have the power to prepare players as they may, no matter which sport it is. Remember that scandal that surrounded the training methods of our then Springbok coach? I can’t remember it in detail at the moment (since it happened like 6 years ago) but he had some training campaign that had our rugby squad players running around nude in a swamp; like they in the military or some shit. In his defense, he claimed it was to empower discipline and diligence amongst the players, lol. I never got to find out if he got fired when they found out, but knowing how coaches always receive bitter/sweet appreciation, I would’nt be surprised. Why do you think the coach always gets the blame when the team loses? As far as I’m concerned, being a professional coach must be a kaak job, even if the team wins. Remember when our rugby team won the world cup in 2007? Coach Jake White was fired right after that. The South African Rugby Association was probably like “Thanks for making our team the world champions, but you’re fired”, lol. The exact same thing happened two weeks ago to the Moroka Swallows coach after they won the Nedbank Cup.
But back to my initial point, South Africa being the host of both the Confed Cup and World Cup means that our team should be the most prepared of all! That and the fact that we’re ranked number seventy-friggin-something in the FIFA team rankings. When I thought I’d heard enough from our soccer team, I pick up the paper on Wednesday to read that the Bafana Bafana players were threatening to boycott the Confed campaign if they don’t get paid their bonuses before the competition. R34 million to be exact. Again I was like ‘What the fuck?!’. Basically these guys were demanding to get paid 34 milli in bonuses for a game they haven’t competed in, let alone won. As you’d imagine, SAFA bit back at the players by saying “Go to hell!”. They told the players to shut up and accept only R14 million, or they’ll all get fired. Now that’s some gangsta shit right there, lol. I did a bit of research and found out that this wasn’t the first time that our players bitched about money. They apparently threatened to hold a strike back in 2006 during the African Cup of Nations in Egypt. And you guessed right, they didn’t win that cup either. As for our game on Sunday? I honestly think we'll win it though.
The relationship between sport and money is beginning to lean to one side. Back then, sportsmen played for the passion and love. Nowadays, it’s become 99.9% about the money. A part of me doesn’t blame our soccer players, their human too. They’re also citizens of this country. They also witness the money-hungry power struggles in the government and politics overall. They probably thinking ‘Hey, we want a piece of that big cake without doing that much work too’.
God bless our soccer team.
PS. Did y’all see the Proteas last night? We the best!!
We’re all lucky to be in this country right about now; well at least we should be. The soccer fever is finally catching up to more and more people. It took a while to kick in (pun intended), but the whole buzz around the FIFA World Cup is turning into a reality day-by-day. You’ll notice it from everything that surrounds us; adverts, the mascot, TV promotions, news media coverage, and who could forget the damn road constructions! And now with the Confederations Cup starting in two days, expectations continue to grow higher now as (literally) the whole world has its eye on South Africa. Call it nerve-wrecking scrutiny if you may, but only good will come out of the football extravaganza. Now that everything’s in place, I didn’t know whether to be shocked, worried or both when I recently found out that our soccer team (out of all people) aren’t as prepared as we thought they were for the first game of the Confed Cup this Sunday.
If you don’t know by now which team we’re playing this Sunday, then you deserve a slap to your face; nonetheless, I reckon SAFA deserved a kick to the nuts when members of our squad revealed this past Monday that they didn’t know shit about the Iraq team. I was like ‘What the fuck?’. Here I am listening to striker Bernard Parker say shit like “Uhm…we don’t know jack about the Iraqi soccer team...we’ll probably see a tape of them in action sometime this week…”. Are you serious? Sometime this week? Even though the game is on Sunday? They should’ve did their research on the Iraqi team last year for crying out loud. Usually when teams are about to engage in critical matches the team staff makes sure that thorough research on the opposing team is made before-hand. I imagine it being like those war movies where the Commander would draw out strategies on a still projector; or how Jamie Foxx would study tapes of Ray Charles before he actually played the character for that movie ‘Ray’. Before I blow my horn any further, I’d like to admit that I’m not sure who we should blame for that. Is it coach Joel (Dipset) Santana’s fault? A lot of people would agree to that one. I’ve known that professional coaches have the power to prepare players as they may, no matter which sport it is. Remember that scandal that surrounded the training methods of our then Springbok coach? I can’t remember it in detail at the moment (since it happened like 6 years ago) but he had some training campaign that had our rugby squad players running around nude in a swamp; like they in the military or some shit. In his defense, he claimed it was to empower discipline and diligence amongst the players, lol. I never got to find out if he got fired when they found out, but knowing how coaches always receive bitter/sweet appreciation, I would’nt be surprised. Why do you think the coach always gets the blame when the team loses? As far as I’m concerned, being a professional coach must be a kaak job, even if the team wins. Remember when our rugby team won the world cup in 2007? Coach Jake White was fired right after that. The South African Rugby Association was probably like “Thanks for making our team the world champions, but you’re fired”, lol. The exact same thing happened two weeks ago to the Moroka Swallows coach after they won the Nedbank Cup.
But back to my initial point, South Africa being the host of both the Confed Cup and World Cup means that our team should be the most prepared of all! That and the fact that we’re ranked number seventy-friggin-something in the FIFA team rankings. When I thought I’d heard enough from our soccer team, I pick up the paper on Wednesday to read that the Bafana Bafana players were threatening to boycott the Confed campaign if they don’t get paid their bonuses before the competition. R34 million to be exact. Again I was like ‘What the fuck?!’. Basically these guys were demanding to get paid 34 milli in bonuses for a game they haven’t competed in, let alone won. As you’d imagine, SAFA bit back at the players by saying “Go to hell!”. They told the players to shut up and accept only R14 million, or they’ll all get fired. Now that’s some gangsta shit right there, lol. I did a bit of research and found out that this wasn’t the first time that our players bitched about money. They apparently threatened to hold a strike back in 2006 during the African Cup of Nations in Egypt. And you guessed right, they didn’t win that cup either. As for our game on Sunday? I honestly think we'll win it though.
The relationship between sport and money is beginning to lean to one side. Back then, sportsmen played for the passion and love. Nowadays, it’s become 99.9% about the money. A part of me doesn’t blame our soccer players, their human too. They’re also citizens of this country. They also witness the money-hungry power struggles in the government and politics overall. They probably thinking ‘Hey, we want a piece of that big cake without doing that much work too’.
God bless our soccer team.
PS. Did y’all see the Proteas last night? We the best!!
I Wear It For Hip-Hop
[Originally posted on Friday, June 5, 2009 at 11:26am]
I’m back. I’ve had a very eventful week since the last post. I think I should write a book or some shit. At least then I’d know I’m getting paid for sitting down and writing something one never really knows if people actually read; unlike these damn blogs, lol. Maybe after my 100th blog I’ll put them all together in a book-like format. Problem is, who the hell would want to buy/read stuff that I already shared for free here on Facebook/blogspot.com? I for one would want to read it. I feel like I’ve become a big fan of my blogs. Arrogance aside, I honestly can’t wait to get this one done and read it from the top. I love reading them, maybe that’s the sick, selfish, subconscious reason why I do this. Speaking of what I love, today I want to comment on the current connection between hip-hop and fashion. Welcome to Part 5.
Now let’s do a bit of a back track on hip-hop and fashion for a minute. The earliest reference of fashion in the hip-hop culture always brings up the Adidas sweatpants tracksuits. The type that Run-DMC and them introduced to the world. Since these guys are like the true fathers of hip-hop as we know it, the whole 3-striped outfit caught on fast. Hip-hop has been alive and breathing for like 30 years now, and to this day peeps still rock the famous Adidas joints. I noticed DMC (whose one of the members of the legendary group) endorsing Adidas in their current advertising campaign. This dress code was also linked with gold-link medallion jewellery, Kangol bucket hats and huge transparent-lense Ray-Bans that I’m starting to see all over again these days; (not that I was there 30 years ago to see them but you know what I mean). Everyone knows that fashion works in cycles, so if a dude rocked that stuff today it wouldn’t look out of place at all. I think. From the early ‘80s to now, hip-hop fashion took a lot swerves and turns to what we have today. I feel as if the hip-hop culture influenced the dressing part of it so much that hip-hop fans have always been ‘loyal’ to the hip-hop look; unlike house cats or some shit (do they even have a dress-style?). Even though there’s the standard ‘sag-your-pants’ side of hip-hop, the clothing part of it has gone through a lot of changes since the Run-DMC days. Remember the mustard Timberland boots era? The Karl Kani era? The Wu-Tang military camouflage attire era? The shiny Puff Daddy and Ma$e era? Or what about the Kriss Kross front-to-back era? And then came Pac & Biggie with the Italian designer labels. All they did was mention them in their raps, next thing you know dudes were saving up for Versace loafers. I for one haven’t been able to afford those yet, lol. Besides, I’m South African; a Maftowner at that. I came up in the era when people dissed you for wearing anything hip-hopish. ‘Ha se mo States mo!’. Remember that line? Now all of a sudden its cool. Mxm.
Fast-forward to 2009, and what do we have? We have a mixture of everything into one style. Well, sort-of. I think we’re starting to bite from the rockers nowadays. The BAPE-era that Pharell and Nico introduced a few years back was very successful, and it still is. The difference with this current era is that some of the clothes that are considered ‘cool’ these days get a lot of mixed reactions, mainly from old-school hip-hoppers. Case-in-point: skinny jeans. As much as I love fashion, hip-hop, and hip-hop fashion; I can’t say I’ve agreed (or wore) everything that has come with the culture in the past. Difference is, these days it’s much more easier to say ‘Fuck it I don’t care if my favourite rapper wears that stuff, I won’t!’. I’m starting to see rap fans rocking skinny jeans from left to right. This is more proof that the rap fashion sense is jacking the rock rap sense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you see a white dude rocking skinny jeans, it seems normal, I guess. They’ve been wearing them as far as I can remember, especially the punk rockers. I was watching the X-Games one time and every competitor was rocking them. But when you see a black dude wearing them, you start making conclusions about them. If you turn back the hands of time to let’s say 2000, you wouldn’t be called ‘hip-hop’ if you were on stage wearing skinny jeans spitting tight punchlines, you’d be called gay. Hip-hop has always been associated with the macho bravado. Freedom of speech at its fullest. ‘Fuck the world’. You know what I mean? So why can’t there be freedom of expression? On some ‘Fuck y’all I’ma wear this pink scarf cause honeys dig it’.
But I digress.
Nowadays, it’s become too ‘safe’ to wear anything you like. I don’t have a problem with people wearing what they desire, it’s their business. It just makes it harder for me to defend hip-hop when the number one rapper in the world is being called ‘gay’ because of what he wears. These same people forget that back in the 80’s, dudes were wearing tight clothing too, and no one gave a fuck. When Michael Jackson did the Thriller album back in 1983, he became a phenomenon worldwide. Not only because of the music. Not only because he was talented. But also because of his dress style. No one was rocking what MJ was rocking back then, but your parents as well as their parents loved him to bits; and they wore what he wore. But when Kanye, Lupe or Wayne wear out-of-the-box stuff in 2009 all of a sudden their fags? Remember when Cam’ron had the whole New York wearing pink? People attacked his sexuality for that. The funny part is these dudes are probably balls-deep in model chicks while y’all say that about them, lol. It doesn’t mean I agree with everything they wear, I just decided to stop caring on what I wouldn’t wear. Rather concentrate on what you WOULD wear. I wouldn’t wear skinny jeans because the shit looks very uncomfortable. I’d rather let stuff hang you know? Okay, maybe that was too much information. I apologize.
Now we’ve got the (annoying) ‘arab scarfs’, the high-top sneekers (I love those), the 1980’s MJ leather jackets (dope) and the vintage shades (both aviators and the Ray-Bans). Oh yeah, who could forget the darn Mohawk. I’d rather just wait for another 5 years in these baggy Levi’s 516 jeans for a new fashion. I’m comfortable. Happy Friday you Yentas!
I’m back. I’ve had a very eventful week since the last post. I think I should write a book or some shit. At least then I’d know I’m getting paid for sitting down and writing something one never really knows if people actually read; unlike these damn blogs, lol. Maybe after my 100th blog I’ll put them all together in a book-like format. Problem is, who the hell would want to buy/read stuff that I already shared for free here on Facebook/blogspot.com? I for one would want to read it. I feel like I’ve become a big fan of my blogs. Arrogance aside, I honestly can’t wait to get this one done and read it from the top. I love reading them, maybe that’s the sick, selfish, subconscious reason why I do this. Speaking of what I love, today I want to comment on the current connection between hip-hop and fashion. Welcome to Part 5.
Now let’s do a bit of a back track on hip-hop and fashion for a minute. The earliest reference of fashion in the hip-hop culture always brings up the Adidas sweatpants tracksuits. The type that Run-DMC and them introduced to the world. Since these guys are like the true fathers of hip-hop as we know it, the whole 3-striped outfit caught on fast. Hip-hop has been alive and breathing for like 30 years now, and to this day peeps still rock the famous Adidas joints. I noticed DMC (whose one of the members of the legendary group) endorsing Adidas in their current advertising campaign. This dress code was also linked with gold-link medallion jewellery, Kangol bucket hats and huge transparent-lense Ray-Bans that I’m starting to see all over again these days; (not that I was there 30 years ago to see them but you know what I mean). Everyone knows that fashion works in cycles, so if a dude rocked that stuff today it wouldn’t look out of place at all. I think. From the early ‘80s to now, hip-hop fashion took a lot swerves and turns to what we have today. I feel as if the hip-hop culture influenced the dressing part of it so much that hip-hop fans have always been ‘loyal’ to the hip-hop look; unlike house cats or some shit (do they even have a dress-style?). Even though there’s the standard ‘sag-your-pants’ side of hip-hop, the clothing part of it has gone through a lot of changes since the Run-DMC days. Remember the mustard Timberland boots era? The Karl Kani era? The Wu-Tang military camouflage attire era? The shiny Puff Daddy and Ma$e era? Or what about the Kriss Kross front-to-back era? And then came Pac & Biggie with the Italian designer labels. All they did was mention them in their raps, next thing you know dudes were saving up for Versace loafers. I for one haven’t been able to afford those yet, lol. Besides, I’m South African; a Maftowner at that. I came up in the era when people dissed you for wearing anything hip-hopish. ‘Ha se mo States mo!’. Remember that line? Now all of a sudden its cool. Mxm.
Fast-forward to 2009, and what do we have? We have a mixture of everything into one style. Well, sort-of. I think we’re starting to bite from the rockers nowadays. The BAPE-era that Pharell and Nico introduced a few years back was very successful, and it still is. The difference with this current era is that some of the clothes that are considered ‘cool’ these days get a lot of mixed reactions, mainly from old-school hip-hoppers. Case-in-point: skinny jeans. As much as I love fashion, hip-hop, and hip-hop fashion; I can’t say I’ve agreed (or wore) everything that has come with the culture in the past. Difference is, these days it’s much more easier to say ‘Fuck it I don’t care if my favourite rapper wears that stuff, I won’t!’. I’m starting to see rap fans rocking skinny jeans from left to right. This is more proof that the rap fashion sense is jacking the rock rap sense. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when you see a white dude rocking skinny jeans, it seems normal, I guess. They’ve been wearing them as far as I can remember, especially the punk rockers. I was watching the X-Games one time and every competitor was rocking them. But when you see a black dude wearing them, you start making conclusions about them. If you turn back the hands of time to let’s say 2000, you wouldn’t be called ‘hip-hop’ if you were on stage wearing skinny jeans spitting tight punchlines, you’d be called gay. Hip-hop has always been associated with the macho bravado. Freedom of speech at its fullest. ‘Fuck the world’. You know what I mean? So why can’t there be freedom of expression? On some ‘Fuck y’all I’ma wear this pink scarf cause honeys dig it’.
But I digress.
Nowadays, it’s become too ‘safe’ to wear anything you like. I don’t have a problem with people wearing what they desire, it’s their business. It just makes it harder for me to defend hip-hop when the number one rapper in the world is being called ‘gay’ because of what he wears. These same people forget that back in the 80’s, dudes were wearing tight clothing too, and no one gave a fuck. When Michael Jackson did the Thriller album back in 1983, he became a phenomenon worldwide. Not only because of the music. Not only because he was talented. But also because of his dress style. No one was rocking what MJ was rocking back then, but your parents as well as their parents loved him to bits; and they wore what he wore. But when Kanye, Lupe or Wayne wear out-of-the-box stuff in 2009 all of a sudden their fags? Remember when Cam’ron had the whole New York wearing pink? People attacked his sexuality for that. The funny part is these dudes are probably balls-deep in model chicks while y’all say that about them, lol. It doesn’t mean I agree with everything they wear, I just decided to stop caring on what I wouldn’t wear. Rather concentrate on what you WOULD wear. I wouldn’t wear skinny jeans because the shit looks very uncomfortable. I’d rather let stuff hang you know? Okay, maybe that was too much information. I apologize.
Now we’ve got the (annoying) ‘arab scarfs’, the high-top sneekers (I love those), the 1980’s MJ leather jackets (dope) and the vintage shades (both aviators and the Ray-Bans). Oh yeah, who could forget the darn Mohawk. I’d rather just wait for another 5 years in these baggy Levi’s 516 jeans for a new fashion. I’m comfortable. Happy Friday you Yentas!
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